Fact Check: Wall Photo in Prime Minister’s office Altered
With the upcoming national elections, the criticism and verbal attack from one political party to another has become a hotly debated topic on social media, especially between Cambodia and Vietnam. Meanwhile a photo showing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen sitting in his office with a photo of him and the Vietnamese leader holding on the wall was posted on a Facebook Group recently. It was reacted to and shared by Khmer-speaking social media users. However, after running Google Reverse Image and Yandex, it proves that the photo above is altered.
This is about our investigation of this claim.
Social Media Claim
On June 12, 2021, one of the Facebook users posted a photo into the Facebook Group called “Cnrp Fresh News” showing Cambodia's top leader, prime minister Hun Sen, sitting and working in his office. This photo also shows the photo from behind his chair where he was shaking hands with the Vietnamese leader. This photo has been reacted to and shared many times by Khmer-speaking Facebook users.
A screenshot image captured from a Facebook user's post that reads in Khmer and translates in English as “Blind, betrayed the Khmer nation, carried out a color revolution, robbed power from the legitimate government of Pol Pot to sell to Vietnam, which made Vietnam invade and control Cambodia until now”.
Fact Check
Fact Crescendo Cambodia had started to check and verify this photo directly by running a Google Reverse Image search, which brought us to the sources containing the following photos.
An exact photo of the prime minister Hun Sen's office was found and posted on his official Facebook page on March 21, 2021. This photo also shows the view of the Samdech Ta (King Father), Samdech Yeay (Queen Mother) and Samdech Preah Bat Norodom Sihamoni (Cambodian king), which is placed behind the seat of the prime minister as well. Below is the screenshot image captured from his Facebook page translated in English as “Circular on the holiday during the traditional Khmer New Year from 14 to 16 April 2021 and the rules to prevent and control the spread of Covid-19 disease”.
According to a report that was published on March 22, 2021 in a local newspaper website, the Phnom Penh Post also posted a photo of the prime minister Hun Sen in his office. The photo posted by this website does not show a background photo of the leader of Vietnam at all. A caption captured from the Phnom Penh Post website reads in English that “$8M to civil servants, military for holidays”.
The Phnom Penh Post’s Report | Archived Link
Another photo of the exact same format was also found and published by Nokorwat news website on February 2, 2018, also showing the original view of the prime minister, Hun Sen, inspecting documents in his personal office. An additional image captured from the above-mentioned news website titled as “Samdech Techo calls on people to maintain peace And long-term development in our country”.
Nokorwat News’s Report | Archived Link
According to another report of the Nokor Dragon news website that was published on January 22, 2016, it also showed a photo of the prime minister, Hun Sen, sitting in the office and the original photos in his office do not show the view of the Vietnamese leaders as the post claimed above.
Nokor Dragon News’s Report | Archived Link
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You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer language here as well.
Conclusion
Fact Crescendo Cambodia has found that the photo posted and claimed by the above user is altered. This photo had been edited before it was posted on social media. The original photo in Hun Sen’s office is the group photo of the Cambodian royal family.
